RAWTS: The Nix
I shared this a few weeks ago in stories, but it needs to be here on the grid. Matt is back. Meaning, he’s back in his Reader Era. Figured today — our 24th anniversary — was as perfect a time as any to post.
Quick recap: Back in the meh days of late 2020, Matt declared that he was going to read a book of fiction. With me. Well, not together like we were sitting side-by-side reading aloud to each other. See, Matt is a self-proclaimed non-reader. While he reads news and longform stuff all the livelong day and is full of so much interesting information and is a great conversation partner, he does not have an affinity for fiction — or books, really. What better way to broaden one’s horizons and share something with his (absolutely amazing) wife than have our own lil’ book club? We read The Overstory by Richard Powers, and the posts about this experience/book are now a highlight in my Instagram profile. (Those are those little circles at the bottom of a person’s name/bio on the IG acct, just FYI, and our actual thoughts are further on in the highlight because those weren’t originally stories so you’ll have to scroll a bit for actual non-silly content…sorry, Instagram technicalities!) The first slide in that highlight is what Matt originally wrote (and I posted on his behalf) as we sought recommendations. Y’all came through, and that post is a great one to reference if you’re looking for your next read.
Aaaand nearly four years later, we’re gonna take on another pick from that post: The Nix by Nathan Hill. Shoutout to Sarah McCraw Crow who actually recommended this one the first go-around. (Also shoutout to Sarah’s latest undertaking which is the New Hampshire Books Festival coming up early October!)
When I shared this a couple of weeks ago, I thoroughly enjoyed the bit of response ranging from “I’m going to read it too!” to a tongue-in-cheek “You should have a Read Along with the Sheldons Book Club” (lol), so of course I have appropriately called the aforementioned highlight RAWTS, which has a lovely and gentle and graceful — maybe even demure — ring to it, don’t you think?
More to come. (And Happy Anniversary, Matt. I wanna RAWTS with you.)
originally published on instagram